


insight

by thishazeleyeddemon



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Drabble Collection, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Gen, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jedtavius and sacavelt are not explicit, M/M, Out of Character, Sextuple Drabbles, Tablet guardians is though, You be the judge., i can't tell, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 21:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5349434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thishazeleyeddemon/pseuds/thishazeleyeddemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The museum exhibits remember, or in some cases, try to forget. A look into the minds of our beloved cast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	insight

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if they're OOC. Not beta-read.
> 
> I don't think it'll upset anyone, but there's mentions of child death, non-child death, PTSD flashbacks, war, claustrophobia, and suicidal feelings. It's not explicit or anything, but be forewarned.

1\. Octavius remembered.

He remembered being a king.

He remembered lies and bribery and clever, cunning plans, all to hold his seat on a throne that now was but dust in the wind.

He remembered his daughter. 

_“There are two wayward daughters that I have to put up with: the Roman commonwealth, and Julia.”_

He remembered the endless wars of conquest, the countries that fell to Rome.

And he remembered the blood. There was so much blood. Blood on his hands, and his sword, and on his skin, and his own that he poured into the commonwealth and made it give back a society, intricate and balanced, like a clockwork _doll-_

He hadn’t been a good person. A good king, maybe, but not a good person. Too arrogant, too cold, too hungry for the whole world.

Perhaps it was not a punishment that he woke as a figurine in a children’s diorama, as he had initially thought. After all, here he had friends, adventure, entertainment, and a beloved companion. 

Jedediah’s eyes were so blue in the moonlight. The memories of the sun, which he saw as he dreamed, paled in comparison.

Maybe, this was Jupiter giving him a second chance.

2\. Sacagawea felt…confined.

As a child, she had ran free on the grass under the undying sun - and despite what Teddy said, it had been her. Who cared if her new body had been made in a factory? It was her.

Anyway, she felt trapped. Childhood had been nothing but freedom, and too spend her years in a glass cage with two men who had been reduced to squabbling infants - well, she thought she might just crawl out of her own polyurethane skin and go haunt the museum director’s nightmares for keeping her locked in a place where she couldn’t feel rain on her skin or wind in her hair.

The worst thing about resurrection, though, was that she’d been brought back without her babies.

Touissant, Lizette, Jean-Baptiste. Her darling children, so strong and brave.

She hadn’t gotten to see them grow old. Her babies were gone, gone into the dark, and she was still here. A mother wasn’t supposed to outlive her children. 

She couldn’t tell Teddy that, when facing Kahmunrah, and seeing his gate into death, she’d barely been able to stop herself from going through.

First a glass box, now a museum, and one magic doorway keeping her from seeing her babies again.

Was everything in her life trying to lock her away?

3\. On the good days, Jedediah is just a cowboy building a railway in the name of Manifest Destiny. Life is filled with adventures and fights with the Romans. He doesn’t need to remember.

On the bad days, Jedediah hides in the corner of his exhibit and tries to not let on that he’s having flashbacks to the gunshot wound that tore his insides open and the water that filled his lungs and dragged him down into death as he struggled like a helpless doll. He remembers what Manifest Destiny is really about. He remembers finding his companions killed for attacking an Indian tribe, he remembers disease, and -

\- he remembers the sun.

The first night he remembered who he used to be, and discovered what he’d become, he almost walked out to greet the dawn.

Memories are bad, evil, wicked, and cruel. Being just a cowboy is so much easier. Maybe that means he’s yellow. He doesn’t care. Memories overwhelm him like the water and hurt like the shotgun.

On bad days, he remembers, and drowns.

On good days, he forgets, and stays afloat.

And than Kahmunrah puts him in the hourglass, and he’s drowning all over again.

4\. Teddy’s just a doll. 

He knows that.

That doesn’t make it easy.

He’s just a doll, meant to entertain and instruct. His life is a false thing, his memories someone else’s. He is not a hero. Teddy Roosevelt is.

And then Larry comes along, and he feels like maybe he can be a hero after all.

5\. Larry is a deadbeat.

Can’t hold a job, can’t care for his kid, can’t invent shit - what’s the point? He’s never amounted to much. On some days, it’s easy to remember only that. But then he sees the lights in his son’s eyes when he tells him about the newest cool job he has, and he finds it in him to try again.

And then he meets a gorgeous man named Ahkmenrah, and a museum full of people that he’s a hero to, and the future looks brighter than evet.

6\. Ahkmenrah knows he is somewhat of an outsider in the museum.

Oh, make no mistake - he’s well-loved, and never ostracized, but there’s this little space between him and the other exhibits. He is a king, and they are not. They have the memories of ruling, some of them, but he sat on the throne himself. He is the only flesh-and-blood person, and they are not.

The night guards told them to keep him locked away in the crushing dark of his coffin, and they did.

He understands, really. He might have been a threat. Wise to keep all threats where they couldn’t hurt you. If only he had done that with Kahmunrah.

But he cannot forget that they left him in there, and he cannot forgive completely, no matter how much he tries. Always on his mind is the thought that if they wanted to, they could lock him in the coffin again. 

However, he feels safe with Larry. 

Safe is a foreign feeling. In his father’s court he was not safe, and as king he was not safe. He might be safe now, but he cannot let his guard down. Except with Larry, who freed him after only three days, who battled his wicked brother, who offers him unconditional support, and love.

One day, Larry will go into the Duat to be judged by Ammit and Osiris. But for now…

…Ahkmenrah can let Larry make him feel safe.


End file.
